Illegally Dumping Garbage in Bengaluru? 2500 Eyes Will Keep an Eye on You

All of the 198 wards in Bengaluru have been provided with a budget of ₹10 lakh for CCTV cameras as well as a monitoring centre.

Over the past few months, Bengaluru has witnessed several instances of garbage and debris being dumped at vacant sites, lakebeds and wetlands.

To stop this practice, the civic body has decided to install more than 2,500 CCTV cameras in the city to monitor waste disposal at known ‘black spots’. All of the 198 wards in Bengaluru have been provided with a budget of ₹10 lakh for the cameras as well as a monitoring centre, reports The Hindu. A total of ₹10 crore will be spent on these cameras.

Surprisingly, the increase of such black spots in the city has been a consequence of the BBMP becoming strict in ensuring segregation of waste at source.

Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr

This mostly led to new black spots appearing in the city. Hence, BBMP now wants to monitor this issue through CCTV cameras.

“We will impose hefty penalties this time. And once we put up CCTV cameras, the black spots are likely to move. So, we will keep these camera locations dynamic,” Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, BBMP, told The Hindu.

Some are of the opinion that these CCTV cameras might not be helpful, as in the past no strict action was taken against those who dump waste into lakebeds and other areas. But the BBMP has said that they will recruit eight marshals, one per zone, and deploy them on vigilance vehicles in the night to catch violators.

“There are 21 Prahaari vehicles with the BBMP, and most of their rounds were unaccountable. Now, we have got GPS systems on all the vehicles to track their rounds. The marshals will bring further accountability to these vehicles,” Sarfaraz told the publication.